tip(1)
NAME
tip, cu - connect to a remote system
SYNOPSIS
tip [-v] [-speed] system-name
tip [-v] [-speed] phone-number
cu phone-number [-ts] [speed] [-a acu] [-l line] [-#]
DESCRIPTION
Tip and cu establish a full-duplex connection to another machine, giving
the appearance of being logged in directly on the remote cpu. It goes
without saying that you must have a login on the machine (or equivalent)
to which you wish to connect. The preferred interface is tip. The cu
interface is included for those people attached to the ``call UNIX''
command of version 7. This manual page describes only tip.
Typed characters are normally transmitted directly to the remote machine
(which does the echoing as well). A tilde (`~') appearing as the first
character of a line is an escape signal; the following are recognized:
~^D ~. Drop the connection and exit (you may still be logged in on the
remote machine).
~c [name]
Change directory to name (no argument implies change to your
home directory).
~! Escape to a shell (exiting the shell will return you to tip).
~> Copy file from local to remote. Tip prompts for the name of a
local file to transmit.
~< Copy file from remote to local. Tip prompts first for the name
of the file to be sent, then for a command to be executed on
the remote machine.
~p from [ to ]
Send a file to a remote UNIX host. The put command causes the
remote UNIX system to run the command string ``cat > 'to''',
while tip sends it the ``from'' file. If the ``to'' file isn't
specified the ``from'' file name is used. This command is
actually a UNIX specific version of the ``~>'' command.
~t from [ to ]
Take a file from a remote UNIX host. As in the put command the
``to'' file defaults to the ``from'' file name if it isn't
specified. The remote host executes the command string ``cat
'from';echo ^A'' to send the file to tip.
~| Pipe the output from a remote command to a local UNIX process.
The command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed
by the shell.
~$ Pipe the output from a local UNIX process to the remote host.
The command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed
by the shell.
~# Send a BREAK to the remote system. For systems which don't
support the necessary ioctl call the break is simulated by a
sequence of line speed changes and DEL characters.
~s Set a variable (see the discussion below).
~^Z Stop tip (only available with job control).
~^Y Stop only the ``local side'' of tip (only available with job
control); the ``remote side'' of tip, the side that displays
output from the remote host, is left running.
~? Get a summary of the tilde escapes
Tip uses the file /etc/remote to find how to reach a particular system
and to find out how it should operate while talking to the system; refer
to remote(5) for a full description. Each system has a default baud rate
with which to establish a connection. If this value is not suitable, the
baud rate to be used may be specified on the command line, e.g. ``tip
-300 mds''.
When tip establishes a connection it sends out a connection message to
the remote system; the default value, if any, is defined in /etc/remote.
When tip prompts for an argument (e.g. during setup of a file transfer)
the line typed may be edited with the standard erase and kill characters.
A null line in response to a prompt, or an interrupt, will abort the
dialogue and return you to the remote machine.
Tip guards against multiple users connecting to a remote system by
opening modems and terminal lines with exclusive access, and by honoring
the locking protocol used by uucp(1).
During file transfers tip provides a running count of the number of lines
transferred. When using the ~> and ~< commands, the ``eofread'' and
``eofwrite'' variables are used to recognize end-of-file when reading,
and specify end-of-file when writing (see below). File transfers
normally depend on tandem mode for flow control. If the remote system
does not support tandem mode, ``echocheck'' may be set to indicate tip
should synchronize with the remote system on the echo of each transmitted
character.
When tip must dial a phone number to connect to a system it will print
various messages indicating its actions. Tip supports the DEC DN-11 and
Racal-Vadic 831 auto-call-units; the DEC DF02 and DF03, Ventel 212+,
Racal-Vadic 3451, and Bizcomp 1031 and 1032 integral call unit/modems.
VARIABLES
Tip maintains a set of variables which control its operation. Some of
these variable are read-only to normal users (root is allowed to change
anything of interest). Variables may be displayed and set through the
``s'' escape. The syntax for variables is patterned after vi(1) and
Mail(1). Supplying ``all'' as an argument to the set command displays
all variables readable by the user. Alternatively, the user may request
display of a particular variable by attaching a `?' to the end. For
example ``escape?'' displays the current escape character.
Variables are numeric, string, character, or boolean values. Boolean
variables are set merely by specifying their name; they may be reset by
prepending a `!' to the name. Other variable types are set by
concatenating an `=' and the value. The entire assignment must not have
any blanks in it. A single set command may be used to interrogate as
well as set a number of variables. Variables may be initialized at run
time by placing set commands (without the ``~s'' prefix in a file .tiprc
in one's home directory). The -v option causes tip to display the sets
as they are made. Certain common variables have abbreviations. The
following is a list of common variables, their abbreviations, and their
default values.
beautify
(bool) Discard unprintable characters when a session is being
scripted; abbreviated be.
baudrate
(num) The baud rate at which the connection was established;
abbreviated ba.
dialtimeout
(num) When dialing a phone number, the time (in seconds) to
wait for a connection to be established; abbreviated dial.
echocheck
(bool) Synchronize with the remote host during file transfer by
waiting for the echo of the last character transmitted; default
is off.
eofread
(str) The set of characters which signify and end-of-
tranmission during a ~< file transfer command; abbreviated
eofr.
eofwrite
(str) The string sent to indicate end-of-transmission during a
~> file transfer command; abbreviated eofw.
eol
(str) The set of characters which indicate an end-of-line. Tip
will recognize escape characters only after an end-of-line.
escape
(char) The command prefix (escape) character; abbreviated es;
default value is `~'.
exceptions
(str) The set of characters which should not be discarded due
to the beautification switch; abbreviated ex; default value is
``\t\n\f\b''.
force
(char) The character used to force literal data transmission;
abbreviated fo; default value is `^P'.
framesize
(num) The amount of data (in bytes) to buffer between file
system writes when receiving files; abbreviated fr.
host
(str) The name of the host to which you are connected;
abbreviated ho.
prompt
(char) The character which indicates and end-of-line on the
remote host; abbreviated pr; default value is `\n'. This value
is used to synchronize during data transfers. The count of
lines transferred during a file transfer command is based on
recipt of this character.
raise
(bool) Upper case mapping mode; abbreviated ra; default value
is off. When this mode is enabled, all lower case letters will
be mapped to upper case by tip for transmission to the remote
machine.
raisechar
(char) The input character used to toggle upper case mapping
mode; abbreviated rc; default value is `^A'.
record
(str) The name of the file in which a session script is
recorded; abbreviated rec; default value is ``tip.record''.
script
(bool) Session scripting mode; abbreviated sc; default is off.
When script is true, tip will record everything transmitted by
the remote machine in the script record file specified in
record. If the beautify switch is on, only printable ASCII
characters will be included in the script file (those
characters betwee 040 and 0177). The variable exceptions is
used to indicate characters which are an exception to the
normal beautification rules.
tabexpand
(bool) Expand tabs to spaces during file transfers; abbreviated
tab; default value is false. Each tab is expanded to 8 spaces.
verbose
(bool) Verbose mode; abbreviated verb; default is true. When
verbose mode is enabled, tip prints messages while dialing,
shows the current number of lines transferred during a file
transfer operations, and more.
SHELL
(str) The name of the shell to use for the ~! command; default
value is ``/bin/sh'', or taken from the environment.
HOME
(str) The home directory to use for the ~c command; default
value is taken from the environment.
FILES
/etc/remote global system descriptions
/etc/phones global phone number data base
${REMOTE} private system descriptions
${PHONES} private phone numbers
~/.tiprc initialization file.
/usr/spool/uucp/LCK..* lock file to avoid conflicts with uucp
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostics are, hopefully, self explanatory.
SEE ALSO
remote(5), phones(5).
BUGS
The full set of variables is undocumented and should, probably, be paired
down.